Former bureaucrat and former Mangaluru South MLA J.R. Lobo has joined the list of online fraud victims when he lost Rs. 49,000 from his bank account after divulging ATM details and the one time password (OTP) to a caller posing as a bank official.
Following the fraud, Mr. Lobo has lodged a plaint with the Mangaluru East Police seeking action against the culprits.
The police have registered a case and are investigating.
“It is not that I was unaware of online frauds or cheating; yet I fell prey to the culprit following the way in which he spoke authoritatively,” Mr. Lobo told The Hindu .
Poses as SBI officer
The incident happened two days ago when the caller introduced himself as an officer from State Bank of India and told him his bank account and ATM card would be blocked since he did not provide the KYC documents.
When Mr. Lobo replied he had submitted them, the caller insisted he did not.
The caller then offered to continue Mr. Lobo’s ATM facilities for a few more days since Mr. Lobo was an important person.
Later, the caller told the former MLA the first two digits of his card after learning whether it was Master or Visa Card. Mr. Lobo believed his authenticity and gave the complete card number.
Later the caller asked for the OTP that Mr. Lobo had received saying he needs the same to re-activate the card and Mr. Lobo gave that too.
Rs. 49,000 withdrawn
Only when the caller began asking details of other cards Mr. Lobo was holding did he realise something was amiss and disconnected the call. By then Rs. 49,000 from his account was used for some online transaction.
Mr. Lobo said he has details of accounts to which the funds were transferred and provided the same to the police.
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